Dvinsk in the Past

From the imagination of Atzmon Ganor
Student, Grade 8B

[Page 11]

When you conjure up from the depths of your memory the outlines of a Jewish
city and mother, you remember Dvinsk. This is Jewish Dvinsk, crowded and
teeming with Jewish life. And now, when you know her voice has been silenced,
horror grips you. This is what the murderers did to this source of Jewish
culture. That well-spring of Jewish creativity has been stopped up and will
never flow again.

There is an obligation to leave behind a memory of Dvinsk for the generations
to come, so the descendants of Dvinsk will know the source from which they
came, so that they will have in the forefront of their minds the memory of our
sainted ones, who were turned by the evil ones into fertilizer for their
fields. Until the end of all the generations, the memory of the martyrs, whose
bones were ground to phosphate and whose hair was taken for stuffing
mattresses, must be preserved. That is the goal of the article.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

The Foundation and Development of the City of Dvisnk

The city of Dvinsk was founded in 1278 by the Knights of the Livonian Order and
named Dünaburg [Dinaburg] by its founders, meaning the Fortress on the
Daugava (for it was built on the western Daugava River, on whose banks the town
rests). The town kept this German name for several hundreds of years, until
1893. The city lay, as has been mentioned, on the banks of the Daugava River at
the junction of the Riga  Oryol and Leningrad  Vilna railroad
lines. The city was therefore very attractive to occupiers, who always coveted
the strategically-located spot. For the Livonian Knights it was a stronghold
and a base for the broadening and strengthening of their rule over the Balticum
area. More than once the Livonians, like the Russians, tried to attack the
fortress (in 1315, 1403, and 1418), without success.

In the 16th century Dvinsk was captured and occupied by the Russians and was
later formally passed into their hands by means of an agreement with the Polish
king August Sigismund. With the destruction of the Livonian fortress in 1561,
the city became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The city went
through many periods of changing rulers even after that. In 1577, the city was
once again in the hands of the Russians; then later was re-claimed by the
Poles. King Stefan Batory had the city surrounded with a strong, fortified wall
in 1582.

In 1600 the city fell into the control of the Swedes; in 1635 by agreement it
was transferred over to the Poles. In 1656 the city was taken by Tsar Alexis
Mikhailovitch of Russia, who changed the German name of the town (Dinaburg) to
Borisoglebsk. According to a new agreement, the city was returned to the Poles.
During the Great Northern War of 1700  1721, the city continued to change
hands.

[Page 12]

With the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the entire area was apportioned to
Russia, but that did not provide the city with a long period of serenity. In
1795 the Poles attacked. They set fire to the city, which burned down
completely. During the Napoleonic War, the city found itself for a brief time
in the control of the French, and only in 1812, when Napoleon was defeated, was
the city once again appended to Russia, in whose control it remained until the
outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

For a short period of time during World War I, the city was ruled by Germany.
With the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treat early in 1922, Dvinsk fell within
the borders of the independent state of Latvia. This situation continued until
1940.

With the German occupation in 1941 and during the course of the Second World
War, the city was destroyed. The fate of the Jewish community is well known.
Today, Dvinsk is part of the Latvian Republic of the Soviet Union. After World
War II the city was rehabilitated, and quickly developed into an important
industrial center, particularly in the lumber sector, which developed thanks to
the geographic conditions of the city, which sits on the banks of the Daugava
River. The river, which is more than 1,000 kilometers long, provides a
convenient waterway for the transport of the lumber barges. Railway lines
reaching the farthest ends of vast Russia pass through the city.

The many different rulers of the city left their marks on it. The population
has many layers and is made up mostly of minorities: Belarusians, Malorussians,
Lithuanians, Poles, and Germans. The Jews were the largest minority: until 1914
they made up 14% of the population.

It should be mentioned that even during the period of the establishment of an
independent Latvia the residents of Dvinsk completely ignored the language of
the country, the Latvian tongue, and continued to conduct their public
activities, including meetings in the offices of the municipality, in Russian.

The Latgalians, and the Latvian tribe in the area around the city, were
regarded as forming an inferior stratum of society. Their dialect was slightly
different from that of their brothers from the Lapland and Courland regions,
which were considered part of a purer race. The latter treated the
Latgalians with contempt and called them by the derogatory name Tsangalim,
which means inferior. The pure Latvians, seeing themselves as close to the
superior German race, assimilated among them (they all spoke German, while the
Latgalians were still using their own dialect of the Russian language). The
Latgalians were behind in all areas of life and occupied the poorest, most
backward level in every area. For example, while in Courland and Lapland the
percentage of illiterates reached 50%, the illiteracy rate in Latgale reached
30% [sic]. In the beginning, they had difficulty with their own language, which
lacked tradition and history. In 1860, the population of Dvinsk was 26,000, in
1892 73,000, and in 1913 it had reached 130,000. The developing industries in
the city were lumber, leather, linen, tobacco, grain, and sweets.

[Page 13]

The Jews of Dvinsk

The Jewish settlement in Dvinsk first put down roots in the second half of the
18th century. As has been mentioned, there was a fortress in the city, but in
1812 the Jews were forbidden from constructing and living in a permanent
residence there. In spite of that, in 1805 one would have found about 800 Jews
in the city. The Jewish community in the city began to grow and develop. Later,
Jews began to flow into the Pale of Settlement and continue onwards to Dvinsk,
so much so that at the time of the 1897 census 32,400 Jews lived there. The
Jewish population continued to grow. At the outbreak of World War I there were
over 60,000 Jews living in Dvinsk, making up nearly half the residents of the
city.

All of the Jews of Dvinsk knew how to speak and write in Yiddish. The city had
an abundance of schools (cheders) and from every direction could be heard the
voices of those who began their education by studying Torah as young children
and completed their studies with Gemara and Tosafot [annotations to the
Talmud]. By 1887, 208 students attended a handicrafts school for girls.

Two libraries were established in the city. The same year we also find three
loan funds. According to the census of 1897, Jews made up 46% of the total
population. Almost all commerce was in the hands of Jews. Of 1,370 merchants,
1,134 were Jews. On the other hand, only 168 of the Jews of Dvinsk worked in
agriculture. The Jews also had a large part in the clothing industry: 4,769
Jews made their living in this field. There were 838 Jews working in the
education system, and 805 in lumber processing. That same year, 692 Jews served
in the army. At the time, there were 3 factories which employed 575 male and
female workers. In 1901 the three public elementary schools for Jewish children
that existed in the city (the language of instruction was Russian) were
attended by 300 students. That same year, a school for enthusiasts of the
language of the past (with instruction in Hebrew) was established; it had 81
pupils.

During World War I, which broke out in 1914, the city was depleted of its
Jewish inhabitants. At the command of the bitter enemy, the Grand Duke Nicholas
Nikolaevich (uncle [sic] of Tsar Nicholas II) who was commander in chief of the
Russian army, the Jews were expelled from every spot along the front. They were
considered an untrustworthy element and were suspected of spying. Tens of
thousands of Jews were forced to abandon their property and wander from place
to place deep within Russia, even reaching as far as Siberia. Then the
deeply-rooted Jewish Dvinsk of the people was revealed, in all its glory.

As one man, the Jews contributed to helping one another like brothers, to an
unimaginable extent. The resources for a normal life were blocked. Hunger and
diseases were rampant and the city emptied of its residents. Everyone who could
do so fled, trying to get as far away as possible. Even the pride of the
community, the Rogatchover Gaon, left; a fact which depressed those who
remained. All remaining eyes fell upon the great light, the learned Rabbi Meir
Simcha, who stubbornly ignored all of the insistent pleas that he also distance
himself from the danger, and not just temporarily. For as long as there
are nine Jews in the city, I will remain as the tenth for a minyan, was
his reply.

[Page 14]

Although the Gaon, together with his flock, suffered the same misery as the
other Jews in the city, for the duration of the war he refused to leave. He was
as Rabbi Damta and as a father to his children.

The City's Rabbis

The city of Dvinsk was fortunate to have been served by some of the most
brilliant rabbis of the generation. Among the splendid company that made the
city of Dvinsk a byword in the Jewish world in the rabbinical field, there were
three whose names were especially glorious.

The first of them was Rav Reuvele Dunaburger, one of the greatest geniuses of
his generation, from whom the Rav Kook, may his righteous memory be blessed,
learned Torah. (The Rav Kook himself was a native of Gr´va, which was located
on the other side of the Daugava River which flowed between Gr´va and Dvinsk.
Dvinsk had a profound influence on HaGaon Rav Kook).

The other two geniuses, who were the crown jewels in the rabbinate of that
generation, were: Rav Meir Simcha HaCohen and the Rogachov (Rav Yosef Rosen).
The two of them brought glory to the city and to Torah Judaism everywhere.
These two men were the teachers of a generation and it is thanks to them that
Dvinsk attained world-wide renown.

Rav Meir Simcha served as rabbi for 39 straight years, and the Rogachover
 like Rav Damta  served honestly for fifty full years. The city of
Dvinsk did not experience any sort of division between Chasids and Mitnagdim.
Aside from baruch sh'amar and yitzmach porkana there
was no perceptible difference between the Chasids and Mitnagdim in the city.
The two streams lived side-by-side without any division between them. Although
HaGaon HaRav Meir Simcha, the leader of the Mitnagdim, and the Rogachov Gaon,
rabbi to the Chasids, were in their internal worlds quite far from one another
in their temperaments and way of life, they were close in terms of their
knowledge of Torah and their brilliance.

The erect and regal stature of the Rav Meir Simcha spoke eloquently of honor
and majesty. He interacted with those around him, with a pleasant manner and
measured speech, and was accepted and admired by all, including the non-Jews of
the city. The latter believed with all their hearts in the magical spirit of
the rabbi. I recall, in the days of the flood, when the Daugava overflowed its
banks and was on the brink of bursting the dam, both goyim and Jews swore that
they saw Rav Meir Simcha stand on the dam, glance briefly at the raging waters,
then murmur something. The waters then subsided and the danger passed.

His experience as a merchant in his younger years had given the Gaon the
knowledge of how to smooth over the disagreements that arise in daily life.

In contrast, the shepherd of the Chasidic flock, the Rogachov Gaon, was short
and agile with the face of an ascetic, his head adorned with curls which fell
to his shoulders; he made an impression on all who saw him without even trying.
Among his published books was the famous Tzafnath Paneach.

[Page 15]

After an hour-long meeting with the amazing Gaon, our national poet, H.N.
Bialik expressed his feelings thus: From the brain of the Rogachover it
would be possible to create two Einsteins; a dear man whose reality is unlike
any other, who is an enormous spiritual asset to the nation. If it were
possible to scientifically utilize all of his brilliant knowledge, it would be
possible to enrich our culture with dozens of valuable books. If it were
possible to draw his Talmudic knowledge from the wellspring of his mind, it
would be possible to create a comprehensive culture. Those impressive
remarks came from the mouth of Bialik after a meeting of only one hour's time.
The city of Dvinsk was fortunate indeed to have rabbis who were among the most
brilliant of their generation.

The Synagogues in Dvinsk

The Jews of Dvinsk were not extreme in their religion as were, for example,
certain kinds of Jews in Poland, and were indeed far from similar to the Jews
of the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem. Rather, the vast majority were
traditional Jews who observed the commandments without donning any special form
of dress.

Although the shtreimel and the kapoteh were not to be seen, there
were many synagogues and minyans in the city, and all were full of worshippers.
The Ker Shul in the center of town on Petrogardska Street was especially noteworthy,
with its splendid building and its opulent furnishings. The synagogue drew many
worshippers who wanted to hear the cantor and chorus, whose pleasant voices
appealed to those of discerning taste. This was where the secular
believers gatheredů

A famous cantor who lived in the city made the Ker Shul his home, and those who
were knowledgeable in the field of music could appreciate his singing.

On the other hand, there was the Planover minyan, where the Rogachover prayed;
a place of prayer for dozens of minyans who came to pray in turns, starting
with the early-birds and ending just before noon. This synagogue was always
full to overflowing with worshippers. One minyan would complete its prayers and
the next would begin. Also well-known was the house of study called Der Kahal
Sha'ar where Rabbi Meir Simcha prayed. Here everything was more relaxed;
there were fewer worshippers and everything was calm. Rabbi Meir Simcha prayed
for an extended period of time, and the worshippers would wait respectfully until he
had finished the Shmoneh Esreh and had stepped back. This was in sharp
contrast to the Rogachover, who would be the first to finish the Shmoneh Esreh
and rush to the house of study where he would study Torah day and night.

Those were the best known minyans of the city. In addition, there were many dozens
more, such as: Der Ketzbisher, Die Schneidershe Shul, Der Farbisher
Minyan, and so on. In each one a large crowd of worshippers would gather. On
Yom Kippur, all of the voices would fill the streets, and the entire city
became as one huge prayer, coming tearfully from the heart.

Such was Dvinsk, a Jewish city always, on weekdays as well as holidays. There
was also a yeshiva in the city, where about one hundred boys studied. Day and
night they studied the daf yomi, or daily page [of the Talmud]. Some of them
were extremely intelligent. The head of the yeshiva was Der Kavener, a
brilliant man who captured people's hearts. The yeshiva was called Socha
Horovitz after the generous and wealthy Reb Socha Horovitz, who established the
yeshiva with his own money.

[Page 16]

The city of Dvinsk kept the Jewish traditions with great respect. Even the
agnostics treated the believers with respect, and the latter in turn were
tolerant of the former. It is worth remembering that Dvinsk was the cradle of
the revolutionaries, the Bund, and the leftist Zionist movements. The two lived
side by side in mutual respect, and even in the turbulent days, on the eve of
elections, they kept to their own. This was the pride of the city, Torah and
the belief that each way has its own merit.

The Political Parties in Dvinsk

Dvinsk was a fairly typical city insofar as poor people were concerned; within
the majority there were concentrations of poverty where the people were barely
able to make a living. In terms of social depression it was second to Vilna,
the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Its poverty was relatively proportionate and the
people took a lively and vigorous interest in every matter regarding the fate
of the people and the struggle for a better future and a more just society. The
Jews of the city took an active part in every struggle against the oppressive
government which discriminated against the Jews. Thirty-five percent of the
city's Jews were workers who earned daily wages, and the rest were craftsmen
whose income depended on the mercy of God. The wealthy, even according to the
standards of the town, were so few a child could tally their number. Most
people made a meager living. It was no wonder that the population responded to
any sign of revolt against the subjugation and always hoped for an easing of
their condition. Thus we find that, by the 1880s, when there was an outbreak of
government-approved pogroms in tsarist Russia, active resistance groups were
organized. At the same time, various associations were founded in the city, such
as: Hovavei Zion named for Moshe Montefiore, Ahdut Zionit, Young Israel,
Herut, Socialist Zionists, and Hatechiya. All worked towards the same goal:
fighting against the taskmasters and for freedom from the oppressive government.
The first group of Poale Zion was established in the city in 1900 with
the inspiration of Ber Borochov and Shimoni (Dvin), after about a year an
official list was created for the political party Poale Zion. In 1903 a Dvinsk
group led by delegates Alter Yaffe and Zalman Abramson appeared at a conference
of Poale Zion in Vilna. The program clearly defined the awareness of the class
war, and socialism as the principles on which the movement was based. During
the bloody days of 1905 the movement's organizers were hit hard by the
government, and by the time World War I broke out the movement had been
substantially weakened. Only in 1914 did the movement begin to recover, and in
the days of Karnesky it revived but only for a short time. The first commissar
in the city was the chairman of the Tzairei Zion party Comrade Rosenvein,
thanks to whom people could walk about on guard duty during curfew nights, with
authorization papers in their pockets, serving as a militia which had been
formed in the city.

Also in the general Zionist movement were outstanding Zionists from Dvinsk: the
representative of the association Hovavei Zion in Dvinsk, the delegate S. Y.
Zacks, participated in 1890 in the convention of the Odessa Committee where the
first signs of the Zionist youth movement appeared. Dvinsk was the first city
to witness the appearance of the youth association Adamat Yisrael. In 1903, the
Zionist workers' movement began to effect group immigration of its members to
Eretz Yisrael, and the first pioneers set forth to build and be built. One of
the members was Sarah Malkin, who became well-known as one of the first female
pioneers. Also in the group were Rachel Gutman, Antin, Tehiya Lieberson,
Eliezer Tsadikov, and Baruch Kasteral. From these members the pioneer movement
in Dvinsk grew and spread. ╔migrÚs from the city can be found today on
kibbutzim and moshavim, in rural communities, serving in the Hagana, and
serving as commanders in the I.D.F. The first pioneers paved the way for the
many that would come after them.

[Page 17]

The city of Dvinsk was one of the strongholds of the Bund. Mostly proletarian,
its poor and impoverished strata were occupied by many industrial workers of
the clothing and match factories, and others. The workers were drawn naturally
to the Bund. They built their future on remaining in the Diaspora, and were
satisfied with the demand for cultural autonomy for the Jews as an integral
part of the S.D. party. In 1872 we find a group of revolutionaries led by the
young Jew Eliyahu Snapp and the Russian Belyayev who was studying for the
priesthood. In 1876, there were many arrests and almost the entire group was
incarcerated; thereby effectively destroying the movement, which was called the
Association of Socialist Revolutionaries. From 1893  1897 the city became
a center for the outbreak of strikes for the improvement of work conditions and
to ease the yoke of the political regime. The workers of Dvinsk celebrated the
First of May for the first time in 1896. Representatives of the Bund in Dvinsk,
led by representative Kaplinsky, played an active role in the Bund convention
in Bialystok. In 1899 about 300 Jewish workers celebrated the First of May, and
in 1902 the number of Jewish demonstrators had reached about 700. On the date
of a demonstration in February 1905, the police clashed with demonstrators and
30 people were injured and killed. In memory of the victims of that bloody
conflict, in 1925 a monument was erected in Dvinsk which became a rallying
point for the members of the Bund.

During the trial of Beilis in 1913 the Jews of Dvinsk were in terrible anxiety.
The name of the famous attorney Gruzenberg was on everyone's lips. People in
the synagogues prayed for the libel charges to be dropped.

With the handing down of the judgment, the Jews were able to breathe
comfortably.

During the trial, the Jews of Dvinsk did not flinch and organized a protest.

In 1915 the Bund planned a protest against the war. All of the participants
were arrested and sent to jail.

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the wave of war engulfed the city and
scattered the residents like chaff in the wind. The city emptied almost
completely of residents. Only once the war was over did the residents gradually
return to the city, which began to recover a little. With the establishment of
an independent Latvian state, the Jewish community numbered twelve thousand, as
compared with 60,000 before the war. Broken-down refugees returned to the
destroyed city, which was a shadow of its former self. They rushed to rebuild
their community, and upon its old foundations a vigorous new life began to
emerge. They were aided in this by the broad autonomy given to minorities and
guaranteed by the Geneva Convention; until the bitter enemy rose up and
truncated Jewish life, and the Jewish city of Dvinsk was erased from among the
people of Israel.

[Page 18]

Jewish Activity in Dvinsk

The Jews of Dvinsk saw themselves as thoroughly Lithuanian, for they had
absorbed the industriousness and erudition of their neighbor Lithuania. Amongst
themselves they spoke a Vilna dialect of a poetic and vibrant Yiddish. They
were proud of their skill in this language and used it creatively. The children
received their daily education in this language. It is no wonder that
Letski-Bertoldi, the member of the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia, relied
upon Jewish Dvinsk when explaining the necessity for recognizing Yiddish as the
Jewish language. Also among the goyim there were many who spoke Lithuanian
Yiddish as fluently as our own people. The Jews played a large part in the
development of the city, and visitors could feel the special Jewish ambience
that pervaded it. Although the Jews made up only 14% of the population, their
influence on the economy and on all aspects of public life was considerable.
This was caused by the fact that population was made up of a mixture of
peoples: Poles, Lithuanians, Russians, Ukrainians and so on. The Jews made up
the largest minority of the population. The three most important offices in the
municipality were held by Jews: finance, administration, and economy.

After the war, with the creation of the Latvian Republic, the political streams
were represented and led by the following people:

From the Bund:

Dr. Noah Mayzel, Yitzhak Levin-Shatzkas

From the General Zionists:

Glinternik, Storich

From Tzairei Zion:

Dr. Gordon

From Socialist Zionists:

Moshe Bliach (Amir), Dr. Zand

From the Merchants:

the Koplovski brothers, Bolbaka

From the Property Owners:

the Gorbintz brothers, Edelstein

From the Artisans:

Ravdin

They were the face of the city, its spokesmen, during the period of the
independent Latvia up until the Fascist Revolution (1934). With the rise
political parties in the framework of a liberal Latvia, the parties mentioned
below came into existence and were active in every field, and Dvinsk once again
became a center of vigorous cultural life. Pioneering youth movements such as
Gordonia, Hashomer Hazair, Netzach, and Beitar
were established, and the athletic divisions of the Zionist youth and the
Socialist Zionists gained recognition. In spite of opposition from the Bund,
the Zionist workers' Socialist Zionist camp was officially recognized and
became quite influential.

[Page 19]

Industry and Commerce in the City

There were very few wealthy people in the city. Notable amongst the
industrialists were: the Horowitz family, the Zacks family, the Grilicks
family, and the Wittenburg family. They were dominant in the fields of beer,
leather, lumber, matches and soap. The majority of the Jews were small
shopkeepers, or small workshop owners where sometimes the owner was the only
worker, or he worked with one assistant.

Most of the workshop owners were milliners, shoemakers, carpenters, and tailors
 based on the rule that was forced upon them: go forth and make
your living from one another.

Among the small shopkeepers were those who were quite successful and made a
tidy profit. With all of the liberalism of the democratic Latvian government,
there were still economic areas in which there existed a certain taboo, that no
Jew could set foot in them.

In all of Latvia there were only 21 Jewish government clerks out of a total of
5,291, or 0.4%, at a time (1925) when Jews made up 5% of the population. There
was one Jewish policeman, who served in Riga, out of a total of 4,316 in the
entire country. When he made his rounds everyone wanted to see the only Jewish
policeman.

Among the 1,682 clerks in civil service there was not one single Jew. Only two
Jews worked for the postal service, and thirty-three for the railroad.

Altogether, only about 200 Jews worked for the government of the Latvian
democracy, out of 100,000 Jews in the country. That was the reward they
received for all their help in establishing the creation of Latvia and
designing the government.

It's no wonder that in the city of Dvinsk, full of Jews though it was, not even
ten Jews, through whom their fellows could have received service, worked for
the government.

The few Jews currently living in Soviet Dvinsk are not natives of the city but
rather are Russian Jews who moved there.

Of the previous citizens of the city only a very few remain, because almost all
of the city's Jews were annihilated by the Nazi beast.

The few who remain walk dazed through the city. In their letters to their loved
ones, they still mumble: Dvinsk without Jews. Inconceivable!

On the paving stones of the city's streets where passersby set their feet, one
can see the partially-erased letters representing Here lies  These
tombstones bear witness to the passing of the Jews of Dvinsk from one end of
the city to another, where the Jews of Dvinsk would have their dachas (summer
homes) under the murmuring trees where now live Latvians who killed the owners
and inherited the homes in Pogolianka and Strop, where the bones of many
murdered Jews are buried.

The red flag waves above the city, which is red from the blood of the
slaughtered Jews to whom no memorial or tombstone has been raised.

[Page 20]

Cultural Life in the City

With the establishment of the country of Latvia, the cultural life of Dvinsk
blossomed in every way. Six new schools were established in the city (two in
Yiddish, two in Hebrew, one in Russian and one a religious school). There was a
progymnasia [secondary school] in Russian, a municipal gymnasia in Hebrew, a
night school in Yiddish, and an ORT trade school. Dozens of Hebrew classes were
offered. There were lectures and symposia. Jewish Dvinsk was a leader in
culture and language.

The Jewish Community in the City

Before World War I several different charitable organizations existed in the
city, such as Linat HaTzedek, Bikur Holim, Kimcha DePascha, and
Gimilut Chasadim.

The people of Dvinsk were generous and kept the mitzvot. Although there was an
air of philanthropy involved, there were also good intentions and
kind-heartedness.

With the establishment of the country of Latvia the Jewish community in Dvinsk
developed a well-organized public life: democratic elections were held in which
all of the public streams took part, a community board was elected and
institutions were established that were managed and supervised by the board. A
well-stocked library was founded near the community, as were a pharmacy and
home for the aged. Thousands of the needy received food for Passover and other
aid from the community. The community owned real estate; the municipal hospital
Der Yiddisher Shpital was owned by the community. The community administration
was housed in a spacious building on Miasnitzka Street. It also owned land
outside of the city, which had been leased for a token sum to the Histadrut
HeHalutz. The land and buildings were used as a preparation community for Zionists
hoping to move to Eretz Yisrael. Thus it was possible for the halutzim
(pioneers) to establish a kibbutz thanks to the community, in which all of the
Zionist political parties were represented.

The first head of the community was the attorney Minkovitch (who later moved to
Eretz Yisrael and lived in Jerusalem for the remainder of his life). The next
leader was the attorney Tzvi. There were arguments, decisions were made, and
the community of Dvinsk provided an excellent example of cooperation amongst
all of the political parties with mutual respect and democratic process in the
full meaning of the word.

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